CD Review * Djinn - The Silent D
As reviewed by Johonna
I always love to listen to the
Hurdy Gurdy. It has a full sound from one instrument and reminds me of a
wind up accordion. As yet only Djinn of New York City, and its member Melissa
Kacalanos have put out anything I have found worth writing about. So,
when I heard they were releasing their second album, pre baby …Melissa had a
baby last year and her growing belly and loss of adequate lap to accommodate
the hurdy gurdy pushed them into the studio early - pretty much overnight …. so I was
thrilled. I had been waiting to pick up my legitimate copy of Monkey King (one of the tracks on this CD)
since before Rakkasah East 2008 where I danced live to Djinn.
I opened the plastic wrapped,
soft cardboard cover and plunked in the CD to start track one. Flashbacks
to my childhood farm animal pull toys. Oh, it was just what the album
needed to start off with. It instantly set the tone of the album with its
varied musical scores, from takes on traditional songs like Samer, Sulukele and
Saskin to newer tracks by the band, and a couple of remix tracks by Maduro and
Jim Boz. With a couple of odd tracks like Hellfire Cotton Candy with its
blend of trumpet and vocals to bring in a vaudevillian/cabaret feel setting up
the following track, Lucifer Goes to the Circus. The two drum tracks are very
different from each other. Special Kae grooves out a drum solo featuring
Pete’s beatbox, while Laylia 2.0 goes more traditional with two drums.
The album rounds out with a lesson on the silent D and closes out what they
started with track one.
The Hurdy Gurdy can be truly
overpowering in sound and fullness, but they chose well on several tracks to
let other instruments take the lead and have the Hurdy Gurdy fill in the
background. This meant more time in studio in recording and post
recording mixing. It showed when I compared it to their previous album
which had a depth of sound that was more consistent with their live track
recordings, but left it difficult to mix in with other artists’ tracks since
the volume levels from studio to live tracks are usually so different.
This album, produced an even sound that didn’t leave me adjusting my volume
knob for clearer sound when I switched from album to album on the shuffle mode
on my MP3 and computer.
I can easily say that this album
is for any dance enthusiast. With a great mix on old, new and eccentric,
Djinn comes through again with a terrific album that makes my walks and drive
time speed by.
See the information about the
exciting recording process for this CD here: